For this Between the Lines event on May 16, 2018, Senior Practitioner Mark Hirschfield led a discussion involving three articles and how they relate to the Feldenkrais Method. Here’s the material we discussed, as well as some background information from Mark about why he chose each article.

"Mr. Russel’s article provides a very concrete justification for using slow and small movements during an Awareness Through Movement lesson that combines biomechanical and epistemological research and theory (how one moves and how one 'knows')."

"During the 1990s, Dennis Leri, another Feldenkrais trainer, authored a series of articles published as a compendium (and now available to read for free on Mr. Leri’s website) called Mental Furniture. In Mental Furniture, Mr. Leri, describes and summarizes his research into various sources that Dr. Feldenkrais used in the creation of his method. One of the articles, “The Fechner Weber Principle,” goes into greater detail than does Mr. Russel, in summarizing the background and research that went into forming this principle that is fundamental to understanding how to use the Feldenkrais Method."

From the April 2, 2018 issue of The New Yorker, “Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?” by Joshua Rothman. Click here to download.

Mark says:

"This is an intriguing article that offers a synopsis of ideas put forth by the contemporary German philosopher, Thomas Metzinger, and others, about a concept they call, 'mental models.' Metzinger asserts that it is through mental models that we know the outside world, not through direct interaction with the outside world itself. The concept gets pretty 'heady' but there are many ideas in the article that directly relate to how we form a sense of a self, and what that concept we all have of ourselves might actually be."